Lead wire feed mechanism for lamp stem fabricating apparatus



2 1953 s. J. GARTNER ET AL 2,655,954

LEAD WIRE FEED MECHANISM FOR LAMP STEM FABRICATING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 19, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet l STANLEY J. GARTNER SAMUEL E. SWASBY Dwain J.DW1NELL INVENTORS ATTORNEY' Oct. 20, 1953 s. J, GARTNER ET AL 2,655,954

LEAD WIRE FEED MECHANISM FOR LAMP STEM FABRICATING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 19, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 v m PnzssuRE I56 STANLEYJ GARTNER SAMUEL RSI/wry INVEN TOR.

T RNEY Dmam' J. DHINELL Patented Oct. 20, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE LEAD WIRE FEED MECHANISM FOR LAMP STEM FABRICATING APPARATUS Stanley J. Gartn r, Emporium, Pa and Samuel Swasey,'Ma1-blehead, and Dwight J. Dwinell, Reading, Mass assignors to Sylvania Electric Products Inc, Salem, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Application October 19, 1946, Serial No. "704,316

7 2 claims. 1

This invention relates to automatic machines for fabricating glass stem elements for lamps or thermionic devices.

The present invention is specifically directed to means for dispensing lead wires to the stem assembly and relates to subject matter presented in an application'for a United States patent in the names of Roland M. Gardner, Stanley J. Gartner and Edwin W. Barrett for Automatic Lamp Stem Fabricating Apparatus and bearing serial Number 637,440, now Patent No. 2,637,144 issued May 5, 1953.

Figure '1 is a front elevation of the lead wire dispensing mechanism;

Figure 2 is an enlarged side view of the lead Wire pick up finger;

Figure 3 is a front View of the lead wire pick up finger;

Figure 4 is a detail view of the lead wire pick up finger and its actuating mechanism;

Figure 5 is a detail side elevation of a modified form of pick u finger mechanism;

Figure 6 is a partial cross sectional view of the mechanism shown in Figure 29;

Figure '7 is a side elevation of a cam for operating the pick up fingers; and

Figures 8, 9 and 10 are detail views of pick up fingers showing different forms of pick up finger slots.

Figure 11 is a perspective view of the lead wire reservoir.

The lead wire dispensing apparatus is disposed on the stem machine in register with the path traversed by the stem machine heads which are carried to a plurality of work stations,

When the stem machine head arrives at the lead wire feeding station a pair of wires precut to proper length is fed to the flare. The means for feeding the wires contains duplicate mechanisms each of which manipulates a single wire simultaneously. The wires 44 are stacked in parallel relation in hoppers I36 secured upon a horizontal supporting plate I31. The plate is mounted upon a rigid post I38 which is adjustably secured in a rigid column I39 secured to a bracket I40 which in turn is secured to and extends 1atera-11y outward from the platen 6 of the stem machine. Desirably the platen is provided with one or more grooves I4I within which a key upon the bracket is received. I

A single wire is picked from the stacks by a pair of identical fingers I42. The innermost wires of the stacks are supported at their end portions only to permit the fingers to engage their middle portions. The fingers are vertically reciprocated by means of a yoke I43 secured to an actuator rod I44 whiohtravels vertically within the post I38 and extends downward and is guided through the column I39 and bracket I40. The rod I44 is driven by a cam I45 on the cam shaft 33. The cam in turn actuates a lever I46 fulcrumed upon the shaft 40, and has on its outer end a roll to engage the bottom face of the rod. The rod is held against the cam lever by a compression spring surrounding the rod and bearing at one end on the bracket I40 and at its other end against a collar on the rod. I The fingers I42 are freely pivoted upon the lower end of vertical rods I48 which are slidable in the yoke I43 and have stop shoulders at the upper end to cause thorn to be drawn upward by the yoke. The object of the free movement of the rods in the yoke will appear hereinafter.

The fingers I42 are provided with inwardly projecting arms I49. The rods I48 also have short rigid arms I above the arms I49. A compression spring l5l is received between the arms I49 and I50 and acts to swing the arms outward into engagement with the vertical edge of the pile of wires in the hoppers. The vertical motion of the fingers derived from the cam moves them over the inner edge of the stack of wires and in so doing a single wire is picked from the pile by each finger and enters horizontal grooves I52, in the fingers under the action of suction induced by small hole i53 leading to ducts I54 extending up through the fingers. The duct I5 4 connects with the opening in hollow pivot pins I55 upon which the fingers swing. The pivot ins are ex= tended to receive a flexible tubing connected to a suction pump or other vacuum device not shown.

A feature or the invention resides in the construction of the fingers I42 which are provided with one or more small slots I56 extending trans= vers'ely of the grooves I52. The slots are prevent the fingers from picking up more than one wire at a time since they act to greatly reduce the suction u on any wire but that which is accu= rately positioned in the groove I52. The fingers I42 are provided with short projections I51 extending outward adjacent their pivots. At the end of the upward travel of the fin gers the'projections I'5'l engage pins I53 which are rigidly fixed in a cross bar I59 mounted on. a support extending upward from the plate I3i. Engagement with the pins causes the fingers to swing inward and in so doing ass between a pair of stripper wires I60 fixed in supports secured to plate I'3'I. The wires Ito strip the wires 44 from the fingers from where they fall into a pair or chutes I (H having a funnel shaped upper portion into which the lead wires fall in a substantially horizontal position and are tipped up into a substantially vertical position thereby to then travel through the lower cylindrical portions of the chutes.

From the chutes I6I the wires pass into a pair of feeding or shuttle devices I52 which feed the wires into the flare. The shuttle members are spaced apart the distance between successive heads on the conveyor and each shuttle feeds one wire to each flare so that in two successive indexing operations the flares receive their two lead wires.

It is desirable that the fingers 442 be reciprocated in contact with the wires a plurality of times, Means for doing this is shown in Figure '7 wherein the cam I45 for operating the finger actuating rod I 44, is provided with a' contour properly shaped to produce the desired motion. The cam is shaped to produce an overall traverse of the finger sufiicient to effect the various functions thereof above described and is further provided with a depression H89. Other similar depressions or raised lobes on the cam may be provided. The depression is situated on the cam to cause a small up and down motion of the finger while it is in contact with the lead Wires. This extra up and down motion of the fingers tends to maintain all lead wires near the fingers in true mutual parallel alignment thus insuring consistent pick up of the wires by the finger- As above described the wires are picked out of the stack by suction and stripped from the finger by mechanical means. Other than mechanical means may however be used to strip the wire from the finger. r

A very efficient device for holding and releasing the lead wires is shown in Figures and 6. In this device the finger is mechanically actuated in the same manner as above described and suction applied to the suction duct, acts to withdraw a single wire from the stack of wires and hold it until it is released to fall into the channel means carrying it to the flare below. the invention presently being described however, a positive air pressure is applied at the finger groove to release the wire. This may be accomplished in any suitable manner. As herein shown the fingers I92 are provided with hollow pivot members I81 having an extension thereon to form a valve mechanism I98. Desirably the extension of the pivot I91 has a chamber I89 therein communicating with the opening in the pivot and. also a cylindrical spindle portion I99 in axial alignment with the pivot. The extension I91 also is provided with a flat face I9I in a plane at right angles to the pivot axis. A valve plate I92 is centrally apertured and rotatably mounted on thespindle. The plate I92 is provided with a fiat face which is held firmly against the'face i9I by a spring I93 on the spindle. The outer end of the spring I93 is backed by a collar I94! fixed to the spindle. The plate I92'is pr0vided with a pair of ports I943 and I95 which are provacuum and positive pressure means respectively.

Another pair of ports I99 and I91 are formed in the fac I9i of the member I81, These ports are arranged to registerwith the ports I94 and I95 by movement of the finger. The plate I92 i held against rotation in any suitable manner such as by astud I99 anchored at its upper end upon the projection I59 and extending into the plate at its other end. Thus movement of the In the form of yvided with nipples for connection to a source of finger I92 produces relative movement between the plate I92 and the member I81.

The position of the various ports in the valve are such that when the finger is in its substantially vertical position wherein a wire is picked up one port in the plate I92 and one in the member I81 are in register for example the ports I94 and I 91 in which case the nipple connected to the port I94 would be connected to the source of vacuum.

When'the fingers are in their raised position and swung into position to release the wire the two ports I95 and I96 are in register while the ports I94 and I91 are out or register. The nipple connected to the port I 95 is connected to a source of low air pressure thus the wire is projected from the slot in the finger and falls into the wire conducting shute I 9| from where it goes to the flare as above described.

The pick up groove E52 in the finger I92 may have various cross sectional conformations. One efiicient form for the slot is that shown in Figure 8 wherein the slot is generally V-shaped in cross section and in which its bottom wall I99is disposed at an angle slightly less than .to the wir removing motion of the finger and extends slightly upward from the front of the finger toward the slot apex.

The wall I99 disposed at the angle shown acts to positively hold the wire after it has been sucked into the slot and while it is being drawn upward along the mass of wires where the tendency toward dislodgement is greatest. Moreover, this conformation of the slot also insures free disengagement of the wire when it is stripped from the finger.

Other cross sectional forms for the slot may be employed such as the rectangular slot 299 shown in Figure 9 and Figure 10. In this form of finger not only is the wire pick up slot 299 rectangular but the cross slots at: are also rectangular and of substantial width. It has been found that this combination of slots functions very efiiciently particularly when the slot 299 is made only slightly wider than th diameter of the wire.

- What we claim is: l a

1. Wire dispensing apparatus comprising: a reservoir for the wires, said reservoir having an opening in a wall thereof exposing the wires lying thereagainst; an elongated finger, for picking wires individually from said reservoir, mounted above said reservoir with a portion thereof lying opposite the opening in the wall of said reservoir, said finger having a duct therein extending longitudinally thereof and terminating at one end in a hole in a wire-receiving horizontal groove formed in one end of said finger; said finger having at least one slot cut in said end thereof trans:

versely of said horizontal groove; means for connecting the other end of said duct to a vacuum source; and means for actuating said finger to move it into engagement with the wires exposed by the opening in the wall of said reservoir;

2. Apparatus for dispensing wires comprising: a reservoir for the wires, said reservoir having an opening in a wall thereof exposing the wires lyin thereagainst; an elongated finger, for picking wires individually from said reservoin'pivotally mounted above said reservoir and extending downwardly with a portion thereof disposed opposite the'opening in the wall of said reservoir,

,said finger having a duct therein extending substantially longitudinally thereof and terminating at one end in a hole in-a wire-receiving horizontal groove formed in the wall of said finger facing the opening in the wall of said reservoir, said finger having at least one slot cut therein transversely of said horizontal groove; means for connecting the other end of said duct to a vacuum source; means for vertically reciprocating said finger; and. means for reciprocally rotating said finger about its pivot.

STANLEY J. GAR'INER.

SAMUEL E. SWASEY.

DWIGHT J. DWINELL.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Number 6 Name Date TiiTany Dec. 18, 1928 Muller Jan. 7, 1930 Scepnel et a1 Apr. 14, 1931 Otaka Sept. 1, 1931 Moore July 31, 1934 Hanson Sept. 15, 1936 Hoffmann et a1. Sept. 15, 1936 Brandenburg Nov. 3, 1936 Donovan et a1 Apr. 4, 1939 Schmidt July 1, 1941 Engel Aug. 12, 1941 Hill et a1 Dec, 14, 1943 Hekman Jan. 29, 1946 

